I want to thank everyone and am so glad I came across this forum too. I was diagnosed with DDD back in 1999. after being injured wrking with a child with emotional and physical disorders (god bless) they did not understand I was injured again after having surgery a disc fusion at c5-c6 which resulted in a second fusion at c6-c7. I have a bulge at c7 and at c3-c4. I am considering if I need to have another surgery I will look into the new laser surgery. I have also been diagnosed with DDD iny lower back I fell at a local store back in October in which resulted in my lower back issue and an increase in my neck and shoulder issues. I too began having numbness in my left face after the fall. I too was afraid it was a stroke and was chked for blockage and found non it seemed to slowly let up some to only increase. I am getting ready for another MRI. I have pain radiating down my arms and have arthritis in my neck back shoulders arms and hands now. I do have nerve damage in my left shoulder as well as a loose shoulder joint. I so miss wrking with the children but to high risk for me. I did apply for disability back in 2000 was denied I thought I was not ready to consider myself disabled. again I was told I needed to apply so I tried again in 2005. in the meantime I started a home business/hobby to help take care of my family. I had children at home back then. again I was denied. my doc told me I needed to apt again so I have in and applied only to be told that I was being denied and that I no longer had any disability available to me. apparently if you are not wrking they have the right to start subtracting your disability that you wrked and payed in. where it goes I do not know. Here I thought I was being a strong and good person. my advice to those of you in this same health direction don't Waite, apply. this only seemed to get worse unfortunately and as many of you said. others do not understand the daily pain we go through. and for those of us that want to fight and live, we def pay for it at the end of each day. My husband is a saint. massages me every night to help Eliviate the pain. the headaches I get are deabilitating I either end up with shots or taking a heavy med that knocks me out. some days I'm not sure what scares me more. I want to thank everyone for sharing as well as allowing me to express. it's def a lonely ace to be when those around you do not understand. I don't look for sympathy I just try to find answers and be my own advocate . I too have tried pt several different times and only find that it aggrivates and inflames . I wish you all much strength and support through this. it's sad there are so many of us with this diagnoses and unanswered questions. I am glad however that I stumbled upon this sight. Sorry for the long text! I hope this helps even one person not to end up with no support or no disability. If you would like to talk let me know and I will be happy to share my emai! I wish everyone my best! <3

Anele, I know just how you feel. When I was young, I was cute enough, but never what you'd call pretty. I never liked my teeth either. My front teeth cross a little and are uneven and it's always bugged me. My parents didn't have the money for braces, and I've never had the money for anything either. As I've gotten older, I've gained weight, my neck has sagged to the point that I really have no neck, and I have puffy bags under my eyes. I started noticing that I looked just like my mother about 20 years ago and it scared me. I've always thought my mother was rather unattractive, and the older I get, the more I look like her. I get the "you look just like so and so" all the time. It used to be you look just like my daughter, niece, etc. Then sister, sister-in-law, cousin, and now aunt. I'm just waiting for great aunt. I doubt I look just like so and so, as much as both of us are probably non-descript. I am so non-descript that I am almost invisible. If I walk into a store at the same time as another woman, the other woman will always get waited on first, and I might not get noticed at all. It used to bother me, and now I just think I would be the perfect secret agent or private eye. I can go almost anywhere without being seen. I met a couple of high school friends yesterday for a day of shopping. One of them lives in our hometown and is still as cute as she was in high school. She made my day yesterday when she told me she saw a guy from our class that I barely knew and in conversation she mentioned that our group of ladies went to San Francisco this summer. He wanted to see her pictures, and particularly he wanted to see a picture of me. He told her he thought I was gorgeous in high school (I have no illusions; I wasn't) and when he saw my picture, he wanted to know if I was married, and if there was a chance my marriage wasn't going to last. lol I see that picture and think I am the ugliest woman in the group, so ugly that I wonder why my friends are willing to be seen with me. And yet, this guy didn't see me that way. It's possible he just couldn't really see what I looked like on a cell phone photo. And it's also possible that I'm not quite as ugly as I feel. Just plain. A blade of grass among roses. Still valued, just different. I'm going to give myself a break and try to start feeling better about myself. Do it with me, ok? You are a wonderful person, and I bet you are not seeing yourself as others see you. I love what graywings said about the female impersonators. I'd never thought of it before, but if a man can transform himself into a woman, just think what we could do! This post was edited by marti8a on Sat, Nov 16, 13 at 0:09

50-ish, if you find one at 45 or so that you like don't discount it just because of the LRV number. Unless there are standards/color specs involved, LRV is more like a loosey-goosey guideline, not a formula or prescription to follow. And, yes, colors with a higher LRV number have better odds of delivering the light and airy atmosphere you're after vs. darker colors. A dramatically shifting paint color has more to do with its own metameric tendencies vs. the quality of light. A rule of thumb is if your color stays consistent in appearance when viewed in fluorescent and incandescent lighting, it will *probably* be consistent in any light source. More about north light: North exposure is not direct rays of sunlight. Very different from south light beaming into your kitchen almost all day long, or the morning sun bursting through your east facing bedroom windows at the break of day. North light isn’t necessarily reflecting or bouncing off of something else to get inside the space, it’s just that when your windows face north you don’t have actual, direct beams of light entering fenestration. North light is the most balanced from a spectral distribution perspective, it has a nice, even collection of all the wavelengths though it tends to be heavier in the blue range. Because it’s a balanced bundle of wavelengths and also because it is not a direct beaming, or spot-light effect of natural light, north facing rooms are ideal for any kind of artistic work environment. The pronounced blue of north light is a factoid that's been blown way out of proportion. Blogosphere has taken that one single aspect of north light and made a huge deal out of it - I guess because it makes a good 'sound bite' or something. I dunno. But it's kind of a dumb thing to hyper-focus on. Heavy in blue doesn't mean it's gray. Doesn't necessarily mean it's cool either. North light is simply indirect light that's balanced over the visible spectrum as a whole but with a pronounced bump of blue.

I went with the plain glass, i.e., not low E. I'm a happy camper. It's like having a new window. The light in my room is so utterly changed that I'll walk into the living room and think I've left the door wide open. It's everything I hoped it would be. I do have a conventional screen door that's always in place, since I like to open my door for fresh air when it's warm enough to do so. So the screen somewhat effects the light, but one's eyes adjust to that. I've ordered a custom roller shade, as I need the privacy at night. Currently I have a long piece of craft paper that I hang with blue tape every night and take down in the morning. Yesterday it was almost 100 here and the late afternoon sun was brutal. I was too lazy to put the faux shade up. Here's the difference. It will really make a difference in the winter when it's too cold to have the door open. The screen door is all screen, no glass. Before After Morning, sun on the other side of house Midday, front door open